Research Article The Prevalence of Human Intestinal Fluke Infections, Haplorchis taichui, in Thiarid Snails and Cyprinid Fish in Bo Kluea District and Pua District, Nan Province, Thailand Dusit Boonmekam1, Suluck Namchote1, Worayuth Nak-ai2, Matthias Glaubrecht3 and Duangduen Krailas1* 1Parasitology and Medical Malacology Research Unit, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand 2Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand 3Center of Natural History, University of Hamburg, Martin/Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany *Correspondence author. Email address:
[email protected] Received December 19, 2015; Accepted May 4, 2016 Abstract Traditionally, people in the Nan Province of Thailand eat raw fish, exposing them to a high risk of getting infected by fish-borne trematodes. The monitoring of helminthiasis among those people showed a high rate of infections by the intestinal fluke Haplorchis taichui, suggesting that also an epidemiologic study (of the epidemiology) of the intermediate hosts of this flat worm would be useful. In this study freshwater gastropods of thiarids and cyprinid fish (possible intermediate hosts) were collected around Bo Kluea and Pua District from April 2012 to January 2013. Both snails and fish were identified by morphology and their infections were examined by cercarial shedding and compressing. Cercariae and metacercariae of H. taichui were identified by morphology using 0.5 % neutral red staining. In addition a polymerase chain reaction of the internal transcribed spacer gene (ITS) was applied to the same samples. Among the three thiarid species present were Melanoides tuberculata, Mieniplotia (= Thiara or Plotia) scabra and Tarebia granifera only the latter species was infected with cercariae, with an infection rate or prevalence of infection of 6.61 % (115/1,740).